Tatiara Civic Centre (Tourism Hotspot)

Tatiara Civic Centre (Tourism Hotspot)

43 Woolshed Street , Bordertown SA 5268

Officially opened in 2011 by Bob Hawke, the redeveloped Tatiara Civic Centre is considered the regions premier venue and arts space which features the Tatiara District Council Offices and Chambers, Public Library, Art Gallery, Theatre, Cinema, Main Stage, Conference facilities and the Bob Hawke Collection. A recent addition is the Tourism Hot Spot and Visitor Information Outlet.

The first Bordertown Institute was opened in 1878 on the corner of Woolshed and Decourcey streets. It was damaged by creek flooding undermining its foundations, and by the early twentieth century had become too small for the growing community. Until 1904 the centre of Bordertown was an oval-shaped park known as Maclaren Place, laid down in the 1852 town survey.

In 1904 the Council Chambers became the first building to intrude into the Oval. When the question of replacing the Institute arose in 1905, a meeting of ratepayers voted to build a new one in the Oval beside the Council Chambers. Plans were drawn by Davies and Rutt of Adelaide, but there were delays in raising funds, and it was 1908 before a contract was let to stonemason T.W. Webber of Mount Barker.

The new Institute was opened by the Premier, Archibald Peake, on 26 November 1909.

It was fitted with electric lighting in 1918 and a projection box in the 1920s. For years the Institute functioned as a theatre and meeting rooms, with the library housed in the old building, then the new building was extended in the 1950s to incorporate the library.

The old Institute was sold, and demolished in 1970.

The Institute was linked with the new Council Chambers and offices built to the south in 1978, and internally re-designed in 1983 to house the library on the ground floor with a theatre above. The seats for the theatre seats are from the Majestic Theatre in Adelaide.

A concrete block extension was added to the southern side of the Institute in 1989, and modern stained glass windows were set in the library facade in 1992.

Today the Tatiara Civic Centre consists of a symmetrical Classical masonry building fronting the street in a prominent position between the modern District Council offices and a park with a very large elm tree - all that survives of the town's central Oval.